Coaguchek XS Plus -- Kaput

[Protimenow]

As many of you already know, over the years, I've accumulated a few meters in my attempt to find the most accurate, or most 'reliable' meter. I don't want to risk another TIA because my meter was wrong.

In January, I managed to buy a Coaguchek XS Plus meter. This is a professional meter that I don't think a lot of professionals actually use. I used it a few times for a couple months, then started using it in September. It started giving me errors. I was able to work around one error on October 15 by plugging it into the wall. This was the last successful test. In the past week or so, it's been giving me error codes when I inserted a strip. I cleaned the strip guide (the only serviceable part), and after three calls to Roche (each time I called, I waited 10-15 minutes for someone to pick up, only to get disconnected yet again. The last tech person took my number before the line dropped, and called me back).

Apparently, this was an old unit (according to the history of quality control tests, the last ones were done in 2010), and there are no user serviceable parts.

This was a nice meter -- it provided options that the XS don't -- but the options really didn't matter, anyway.

With nothing to lose, I may open it up to see if there may be SOMETHING in the strip path that shouldn't be there (a hair, or a banana, or something), and see if I can bring it to life.

For now, it will probably join my 'museum' or old, possibly discontinued or never released, meters -- sitting alongside my Coaguchek S, InRatio and InRatio 2, probably next to a Protime and maybe its newer sibling, the ProTime 3, and some interesting ones that apparently didn't survive FDA testing.

FWIW - my CoaguChek XS still seems to be working just fine, reporting fairly consistently higher than the lab results. Also, FWIW -- I got my Coag-Sense meter back, and I'm pleased to have both meters for testing -- the Coag-Sense is usually a bit lower than the lab, the XS is a bit higher, and the average of the two meters is often pretty close to the lab.

So -- even if a meter fails - get another (if you don't already have one) - and continue self-testing.

It could save your life.

 

[Jamey T]

I purchased a Coaguchek XS around June, or July, and so far I am disappointed with the accuracy. My Inratio 2 was much closer to lab tests.

I did find that different lots of strips gave different results. Maybe the Coagucheck will be the same.

 

[Protimenow]

Thanks for the suggestion, but the plus isn't accepting the strips. I have an XS, and the strips seem to work just fine. I think that this machine, probably used every day for dozens of tests, for years, may have just worn out.

In my experience, the XS and InRatio gave values that were fairly close to each other -- and always higher than the lab.

I have only used two different lots of strips. I wasn't able to compare the blood from the same date with two different sets of strips (and the appropriate code chip). The code chip is an important part of the test -- if you didn't change the strip when you got a new batch of strips, you might also be getting incorrect results.

I may open the XS Plus, just to see if there's anything obvious that I can clear up (maybe a piece of paper blocking electronics inside it, or somethng?), but it's probably going to be nonfunctional.

Thanks again for the suggestion and reply.

 

[Aggie85]

Glad for your sake I was able to return your machine, but do wish it had worked for me! THANKS AGAIN. What'd you do with the icicles? Did your wife let you get away with hanging them in the windows instead of getting a tree? Linda